This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. Abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined below, at the beginning of the detailed description section.
One concept that has recently become prevalent is an idea of Internet of things (IoT). This typically is used to encompass everything connected to the Internet, but this term is increasingly being used to define objects that “talk” to each other via the Internet. Such objects include wireless devices having many applications, such as home ovens, refrigerators, electric meters, automobiles, thermostats, and the like. These are also related to machine-type communication (MTC), which enables direct communications among wireless devices. Such communications could take place over a wireless network such as a cellular network or through the cellular network and through the Internet.
In Release 17 (Rel-17), New Radio (NR)-based IoT (NR-IoT) or NR-Lite might be introduced to address use cases between Massive MTC (mMTC) and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC). One key goal of NR-IoT or NR-Lite is to support industrial IoT deployment using low-cost, low-complexity devices with long battery life. Example requirements for NR-IoT include one or more of the following:
1) Data rates up to [10-100] Mbps to support, e.g., live video feed, visual production control, and/or process automation.
2) Latency of around [10-30] ms to support, e.g., remote drone operation, cooperative farm machinery, time-critical sensing and feedback, and/or remote vehicle operation.
3) Positioning accuracy of [30 cm-1 m] to support, e.g., indoor asset tracking, coordinated vehicle control, and/or remote monitoring.
In addition, eMTC and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) may also continue to see further improvements in Rel-17.
One important use case for IoT and positioning of devices using IoT is geofencing. A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a geographical area (e.g., airport, city block, factory, port, school, and the like). Geofencing is a feature where an alert is triggered when a device enters or leaves a virtual geofence. Some examples of geofencing use cases include the following:
1) Asset or people tracking—a factory can use geofencing to trigger an alert when an asset leaves the factory, or a parent can use geofencing to trigger an alert when a child leaves an area.
2) Marketing—advertising, location-relevant information, collecting insights about user behaviors, and the like.
3) Smart home—home devices like heating and lighting can turn themselves off after you leave the home.
4) Drones—drones can be confined to be operated only in specific areas e.g. manufacturing plants, ports, or out of specific areas, e.g., airports, prisons, and the like.
For wireless devices and wireless networks, geofencing and other positioning could be improved.